Anti Corruption Agitation:
Meaning of Corruption:
According to Webster’s Dictionary Corruption means impairment of integrity, virtue or moral principle, depravity, decay, decomposition, inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means, a departure from original or what is pure or correct and bribery. Now if we apply these meanings to us, who are corrupt and who are not? According to Bhagavath Geetha moral corruption is the greatest corruption. However let us forget the broad aspect of corruption and confine to the bribery which is agitating the minds of all including those who are agitating the corruption.
Corruption is a serious evil in the society.
It is an evil that exists from the time of civilisation and was being fought from that time till now and will continue till human race exist in any level of understanding except when everyone become self realised. The fight against corruption is of utmost importance, as it will check the speed of engulfing the moral fiber of the nation. Each of us should introspect individually and come to the right conclusion before jumping into an emotional excitement of the issue and happenings of the present time.
Various approaches of fighting:
Subramaniam Swamy, Ram Jethmalani and few other RTI activists started the present fight by filing cases against the supposed corrupt acts of individual leaders. Subramanian Swamy started it first against the present C M of Tamilnad for the acts of corruption during her previous tenure. Subsequently she was defeated in the next elections and the DMK came to power. Later Swamy started cases against persons of DMK. The cases against Jayalalitha are being allowed to die a slow death.
Anna Hazare: Later Anna Hazare started his fight against corruption by fast for compelling the Government to introduce the Lokpal bill and to get it passed in Parliament by Aug, 2011. He started the fast at the right time, when the people of the country were tired of the rising prices of all essential commodities, raising of prices of petroleum many times within short intervals, coming across cases after cases of various corruption like the CWG, 2G, CVC appointment, HRC and Government’s resistance against the JPC, a batch of cases of sexual assault and murders in various parts of the country, Naxal attacks and the terrorist attacks in Kashmir etc. The people felt that the Government is thoroughly useless, powerless and incompetent. So the action of Anna Hazare caught up the imagination of a large number of people all over the country. His hunger strike was very effective. Seeing this, many opportunists, disgruntled elements and those who want quick name and fame joined his band and became vociferous. The government woke up from its slumber or was rudely shaken and they engaged in discussion with the Hazare group and agreed to have their representatives also in the draft panel of the Lokpal bill. The agitation was lifted. The negotiation is going on till now.
Ramdev’s fight:
By that time another agitation by Baba Ramdev was announced. He included the issue of bringing back the black money also with corruption to be fought and fixed the date for hunger strike with hundreds of his followers. The media which was covering the Subramaniam Swamy's fight dropped him into the cold, went behind Anna Hazare when his agitation started and when Ramdev was getting support, the media friends dropped Anna and company and came behind Ramdev in full swing. Anna and his group found themselves in an unenviable situation of the ground slipping from under their feet and completely sidelined. The situation was such that even they had to declare that they fully support Ramdev and they will en mass join the movement of Ramdev. Anna Hazare announced that he will join the Ramdev hunger strike.
The Government laid a red carpet for Anna group and included their representatives in the draft panel for drafting Lokpal bill. Subsequently the Central Ministers, 4 of them, including the number 2 in the Government and the main ruling party went to the Airport to receive Ramdev. It gave an impression that the Government is rattled and badly shaken. Or was it a clever plot of the Government to divert the attention of people from Anna Hazare's agitation? Anyway, the discussions went on between Government and Ramdev for arriving at a common draft. It appears that after seeing the media cover and glare, the Government’s buckling down and Anna Hazare group’s climbing on to his bandwagon, the support from BJP and RSS etc went to his head and Ramdev started behaving erratically. Since the Government was already pushed to the wall and cannot go beyond, might have decided to fight back and crack down on Ramdev and company. The midnight past operation is too well-known and fresh for any repetition. This time they decided wisely and decisively. If it was during the day time, it would have been very violent and would have turned bloody and ugly. They could manage almost smoothly except for the injuries of about 50-60 persons from both sides together with only one seriously suffering. Ramdev got panicky and was incoherent afterwards. That is the only act the Government did properly on the whole episode so far.
The Government laid a red carpet for Anna group and included their representatives in the draft panel for drafting Lokpal bill. Subsequently the Central Ministers, 4 of them, including the number 2 in the Government and the main ruling party went to the Airport to receive Ramdev. It gave an impression that the Government is rattled and badly shaken. Or was it a clever plot of the Government to divert the attention of people from Anna Hazare's agitation? Anyway, the discussions went on between Government and Ramdev for arriving at a common draft. It appears that after seeing the media cover and glare, the Government’s buckling down and Anna Hazare group’s climbing on to his bandwagon, the support from BJP and RSS etc went to his head and Ramdev started behaving erratically. Since the Government was already pushed to the wall and cannot go beyond, might have decided to fight back and crack down on Ramdev and company. The midnight past operation is too well-known and fresh for any repetition. This time they decided wisely and decisively. If it was during the day time, it would have been very violent and would have turned bloody and ugly. They could manage almost smoothly except for the injuries of about 50-60 persons from both sides together with only one seriously suffering. Ramdev got panicky and was incoherent afterwards. That is the only act the Government did properly on the whole episode so far.
Ramdev Fiasco:
After the mid night operation against Ramdev, the Hazare camp came into limelight again and started behaving like the champions of defending Ramdev and declared another agitation by them against the alleged high handedness of the Government against Ramdev's agitation. They thought that the public excitement will continue in favour of Ramdev and can take advantage of it. Hazare and his camp were comparing the Government action against Ramdev to that of the Jalianwalabag massacre by the British Empire. It is quite possible to understand the followers of Anna Hazare talking like that as many of them are in his bandwagon for fame, name and quick power. But Hazare himself speaking like that is unfortunate. The same Anna group which compared the Ramdev as Jalianwalabag martyr and wanted to climb on to the bandwagon of Ramdev is now criticizing, accusing and denigrating the Baba. He has now become a hot potato to be dropped.
Anna Hazare, of course is far better than most of the present known leaders of our country. At least he has not indulged in any major corruption, manipulation or malpractice. Instead he is working to develop his village into a near model village and is on the way of expanding the model to other nearby places. He has lived a model life of honesty, frugality and has spurned the chances of making fast money till now. That does not justify him to do whatever he feels. According to me Hazare is fighting, if his public utterances are to be taken at face value, for anarchy and dictatorship. Because according to him there should be an all powerful Lokpal to inquire into allegations, decide on allegations and punish on allegations with power over everybody including the Prime Minister, parliament members, all executives and all judges. Who will be the person/s in the Lokpal? The people selected for that purpose from amongst us. Who will select the Lokpal members? People selected from amongst us. Who are to be fought against corruption? People from amongst us. According to Hazare Group all the existing institutions are useless and an effective one has to be made. In effect the Lokpal will become the Super cop to complain, inquire, charge, try and punish. Who will check their activity? No one. In this context let us remember the observation made by Lord Aton that “Power Corrupts and absolute Power corrupts absolutely”. Granting that what his group has proposed is good and implemented, is it not paving the way for others to follow suit by doing what they want by collecting a large group of people around and pressurizing the Governments. Will it not amount to pressurizing or coercing and hoodwinking the government, opposition and the people of the country? I feel that whatever is to be done should be done in the established way. If the established system of debate is obsolete, we should work for the change of the system. We should not shortcut to make our idea work. At the moment, ours is a democratic system and we should introduce anything through the democratic process only.
Anna Hazare, of course is far better than most of the present known leaders of our country. At least he has not indulged in any major corruption, manipulation or malpractice. Instead he is working to develop his village into a near model village and is on the way of expanding the model to other nearby places. He has lived a model life of honesty, frugality and has spurned the chances of making fast money till now. That does not justify him to do whatever he feels. According to me Hazare is fighting, if his public utterances are to be taken at face value, for anarchy and dictatorship. Because according to him there should be an all powerful Lokpal to inquire into allegations, decide on allegations and punish on allegations with power over everybody including the Prime Minister, parliament members, all executives and all judges. Who will be the person/s in the Lokpal? The people selected for that purpose from amongst us. Who will select the Lokpal members? People selected from amongst us. Who are to be fought against corruption? People from amongst us. According to Hazare Group all the existing institutions are useless and an effective one has to be made. In effect the Lokpal will become the Super cop to complain, inquire, charge, try and punish. Who will check their activity? No one. In this context let us remember the observation made by Lord Aton that “Power Corrupts and absolute Power corrupts absolutely”. Granting that what his group has proposed is good and implemented, is it not paving the way for others to follow suit by doing what they want by collecting a large group of people around and pressurizing the Governments. Will it not amount to pressurizing or coercing and hoodwinking the government, opposition and the people of the country? I feel that whatever is to be done should be done in the established way. If the established system of debate is obsolete, we should work for the change of the system. We should not shortcut to make our idea work. At the moment, ours is a democratic system and we should introduce anything through the democratic process only.
Our Democratic set up:
Probably the founders of our democracy wanted that no single point should become the sole power point in our country. The power should be distributed between different wings of Administration namely the Legislators, the Judiciary, the Executives and the free press. They have observed the goings on around our country and the world, of powerful persons mostly from military toppling the democratic Governments and imposing dictatorships. Even now the struggle against dictatorship is going on in some countries. By making the Lokpal an all powerful single point authority we are paving the way for that situation indirectly. Even for natural justice the authority investigating should be different from that of judging and that of executing so that the mistake of anyone could be checked by the other two.
Corruption Fighting Mechanisms: In the beginning when we were having the Rajas they had their force to check any undesired activities including the corruption. Even these autocrats did not take decisions without consulting their advisers and without trial and giving chance to the accused. After that the police came into existence. They were having unbridled authority and were dreaded. They were tyrannical and became corrupt. Because of the atrocities the police had to be reined. When police became ineffective, other forces were brought in to curb undesirable activities including corruption, like the CBI, IB, Raw, CVC, CAG etc. As per the Anna Hazare Group the Government is ineffective, the judiciary is ineffective, the executive is ineffective, and the media is ineffective. They are the only effective people, representing the nation without having to get elected, only honest people and only they have the monopoly to decide what is good for the nation, who are good and honest etc. They want the Lokpal as they dictate. Will it solve the problem? Perhaps immediately for some time it may be possible that the Lokpal may be as effective as was the police, CBI, CVC, CAG etc in the beginning. Later on Lokpal will also fall into the same groove and will be much worse as it has all the power at its hand. At that time some other group has to take up the cause and another force is to be introduced to deal with the problem of the Lokpal. But the way in which the Lokpal is proposed will create more problem than it solves as it will be like an unbridled power center which can play havoc with the lives of those who come in its way or whom the Lokpal want harass, intimidate and punish. Here the investigators of cases, presenters of the cases, arguers of the cases, judges of the cases and punishers of the cases are one and the same. In fact they will be remote controlling all the activities of the Government. The Legislative wing, judicial wing, executive wing and the media in fact every activity in the country will be under the uncontrolled control of the proposed Lokpal of Hazare Group. Just have a look at the members of the self appointed guardians of the nation who according to themselves are the cream of intelligence and honesty and are in the Lokpal drafting panel. Anna Hazare is a true representative of common man. Apart from him, it includes a father and son duo. Is it that only these two are the topmost eminent legal luminaries in the country, to be included as a pair? Then we have some disgruntled retired persons who are’ the sole honest and upright persons’ in the country. If the support of a few thousands of people assembled in media rooms, or tweeting/face booking or E-mailing or sending SMS from cell phones can make the people so arrogant, there is no wonder about the arrogancy of the Government and Opposition parties as they were elected by crores of people. Let us remember that only around 5 to 10% of the population is having the facility of assembling in media rooms, tweeting, facebooking, e-mailing or smsing. That is only a microscopic minority of the population.
What is required to take care and prevent corruption is a system not only to fight corruption as and when it occurs, but also one to prevent if possible or at least reduce the chances as far as possible. This can be achieved to some extent by having a reform of administration by making it as transparent as possible. Those who had the experience of booking or rail tickets, obtaining/renewing of driving licenses and registrations of property (in some states at least) etc in the earlier years will remember the level of corruption and anarchy in those fields before computerization and making it transparent as of now. Similar methods suitable to the other departments should be introduced so that the chances of manipulation are reduced and hence the chances of corruption are reduced. There is a say that “prevention is better than cure”. As mentioned earlier we are having a system of checks of abuse of power or position by having multi layer of division of power. The S C strictures on Government are proof and at one time few months back, when the S C overstepped its limit, the parliament checked it.
Therefore what is required is to improve the functions of the present institutions like the crime branch of police, CBI, RAW, IB, CAG, PAC and JPC etc by giving them more powers and personal for faster investigations of more number of cases, setting up of more number of exclusive special courts etc so that the investigations are speeded up, presentation of the cases are speeded up, trial and orders of the cases are speeded up and the execution is speeded up. This itself will help to reduce the crimes considerably. A new agency similar to the existing ones like the proposed Lokpal to cover the fields not covered by the existing institutions only is needed as an additional institution. It is to be remembered that even if a 1000 culprits escape, not a single innocent should be punished.
What is required to take care and prevent corruption is a system not only to fight corruption as and when it occurs, but also one to prevent if possible or at least reduce the chances as far as possible. This can be achieved to some extent by having a reform of administration by making it as transparent as possible. Those who had the experience of booking or rail tickets, obtaining/renewing of driving licenses and registrations of property (in some states at least) etc in the earlier years will remember the level of corruption and anarchy in those fields before computerization and making it transparent as of now. Similar methods suitable to the other departments should be introduced so that the chances of manipulation are reduced and hence the chances of corruption are reduced. There is a say that “prevention is better than cure”. As mentioned earlier we are having a system of checks of abuse of power or position by having multi layer of division of power. The S C strictures on Government are proof and at one time few months back, when the S C overstepped its limit, the parliament checked it.
Therefore what is required is to improve the functions of the present institutions like the crime branch of police, CBI, RAW, IB, CAG, PAC and JPC etc by giving them more powers and personal for faster investigations of more number of cases, setting up of more number of exclusive special courts etc so that the investigations are speeded up, presentation of the cases are speeded up, trial and orders of the cases are speeded up and the execution is speeded up. This itself will help to reduce the crimes considerably. A new agency similar to the existing ones like the proposed Lokpal to cover the fields not covered by the existing institutions only is needed as an additional institution. It is to be remembered that even if a 1000 culprits escape, not a single innocent should be punished.
Positive Stand by all:
At present what is required is a positive approach from the Government, the opposition parties, the State Governments, the Civil Liberty Movements and the public at large. The Government should now forget its ego and approach the opposition and the state governments with a draft for the Improvement of the existing institutions, and the proposed Lokpal bill (to cover all wings of the Government upto the lowest level in the village, the corporate, companies, professionals, freelancers, media persons, social activists, RTI activists, in fact everyone in the country) along with their blue print for bringing back the stashed black money, a onetime chance to convert the black money in the country with a penalty and punishment and take into consideration of the opinions of all the organisations who are interested in the well being of our country. These suggestions should be discussed by the Parliament and come to a consensus not only on the issue of the Lokpal bill, measures to prevent corruption, bringing the black money stashed outside to be brought on urgent basis, on the proper function of the Government, of the Opposition and of the organisations for proper rule of law, order and justice, administrative reforms, upholding the democratic set up of our country within a time frame. If the Government can spread a red carpet to the civil librettists and the like of Ramdevs, why it is not possible for it to discuss with the opposition parties also and arrive at a consensus. After all they have to participate in the parliament in the debate. Since everyone is supposed to have the interest of the country in the mind, consensus will not be a problem
Conclusion:
For the above objective the Government should come down from its pedestal of arrogance and have sincere and serious dialogue with the opposition parties; the opposition parties should forget about only opposing the Government and co-operate with the Government; the public NGOs should guide the public without any pride, prejudice or ulterior motives to see that our country becomes the finest one in the world.
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